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Sorrel Fried in Batter
Make a small quantity of frying-batter (see BATTER FOR FRYING VEGETABLES). This will be better if made an hour or two before it is wanted. Take the middle leaves only of the sorrel, wash them in two or three waters, drain and dry them well, and trim them neatly. Dip them in the batter, and fry them in hot fat till crisp and brown. Serve on a hot dish, garnished with parsley. Time to fry, three or four minutes.
A vegetable fritter of the plainest kind, and it stands or falls on two things: bone-dry leaves and fat hot enough to set the batter on contact.
- Dry the leaves ruthlesslySorrel holds water in its folds and along the midrib, and any that survives will make the batter slide off and the fat spit. After the two or three washings, spin or blot the leaves and let them sit on a cloth until they feel papery-dry to the touch.
- Frying temperatureThe book says only "hot fat." Aim for 350-375F (175-190C). Below that the batter absorbs grease and the leaf collapses; much above and the coating browns before it crisps.
- TimeThree to four minutes is generous for a single leaf in properly hot fat. Expect closer to 90 seconds to two minutes, turning once, and judge by colour rather than clock.
- The batterThe cross-reference is to a light vegetable frying batter; the recipe under review does not repeat its ingredients. The instruction to make it an hour or two ahead is sound, as resting relaxes the gluten. If the batter recipe uses whipped egg white, fold it in only just before frying.
- "Middle leaves only"Meaning neither the tough outer leaves nor the tiny centre shoots. Choose leaves roughly the size of your palm, and trim out any thick stalk, which will not cook through in the time the batter takes.
- Sorrel todayCommon or garden sorrel (Rumex acetosa) is almost certainly the plant meant, its leaves being large enough to batter; French or buckler-leaf sorrel is smaller and better suited to salads. Both are sharply acidic and high in oxalates, which is worth knowing if oxalate kidney stones are a concern, though a plate of fritters is an ordinary food quantity.
- Seasoning and servingThe recipe seasons nothing. Salt the fritters the moment they leave the fat, and a squeeze of lemon is not out of place despite the leaf's own tartness. The text asks only for parsley; fried parsley, dropped into the same fat for a few seconds, would suit the dish.
- YieldReckon on eight to ten leaves per person as a savoury or a vegetable side dish. They soften within minutes, so fry in small batches and send them straight to the table.
Sorrel was a standard kitchen-garden green in Britain long before it became a specialist item, valued for the sharp oxalic tang that made it a sauce for fish and a soup base without recourse to lemon or vinegar. The cross-reference to a vegetable frying batter places this among the fritters, a family of dishes in which beignets of spinach, salsify, artichoke and sorrel also appear in French practice of the period, served as a savoury course or a garnish for meat. That sorrel needed no explanation to the book's readers, while it now has to be sought out at a market or grown, is a fair measure of how far the domestic vegetable garden has shrunk.